Is rap music really music?

[sparkplug]

I was busy when I first started this thread, so I wasn't very specific about my question. OK, is rap music? When I say rap, that includes the beats. Maybe I should have said hip hop instead of rap, so if a mod could change it, that would be nice. Anyways,back to the question. If rap/hiphop isn't music, is it poetry set to a beat? Or is it worthless garbage? If the beats in rap/hiphop are replaced with live instruments, is it music then?
I find polls to be restrictive, so thats why this isn't a poll. Alright, now I hope the topic of this thread is more clear.

[General Ludd]

Pretty lame troll. I mean, you couldn't even be arsed to say something.

[Blackwidow24]

Well, it is music, or at least can be classified as music because of the use of beats and singing HOWEVER, it can be ridiculous and hard to listen to.




I like Tupac, he was a poet, alot of his songs were about his own life, but alot of rap artist just use it as a means to get out there anger and hostility towards forces more powerful than themselves...i.e. the police. They also seem to have a HUGE disresepect for women...labeling them as Beotches and hoes...its gotten really bad lately

[mactbone]

No, it is an extension of the Beatnik Poetry from way back when.

If there is no melody, it cannot be classified as music. Meaning, some percussion pieces can still be classified music because they vary the timbre of the drum and don't play the same thing ala normal background beat. I can still remember watching Bill Bruford play Caravan on a regular drum set. It's amazing how much you can do with just a set if you let your imagination take control.

Not to mention that dubbing yourself over someone else's song does not make you a musician.

[Asher]

Rap is not music as I define it. It's poetry, if anything, set to a beat. That's not music. You may like it, but it's not music.

[sparkplug]

Originally posted by Osweld
Pretty lame troll. I mean, you couldn't even be arsed to say something.

Sorry, I had to do something and I didnt have time to post a longer message. I didnt mean it as a troll.In fact I am a very big fan of rap. Its just that a lot of people I know hate it because it doesnt have instruments or its obscene etc. So I was wondering what people think about it.

[Blackwidow24]

I see your points, but the fact that there is "music" in the background would technically make it music...NO?


I agree that is rhymes but that doesn't make it poetry.
[
Slush "The Villain"(Talkin)]
Ha Ha
Slush "The Villain"
Shadow all up in this motha****a
Hella High, off that sticky gram weed
Livin the thug life, sellin drug life
Packin snubs, smokin weed all day bud life
Can't **** wit it baby


Poetry??? I think not?

[Asher]

Yes, that's poetry.
It's not very good poetry, but it's still poetry nonetheless.

[sparkplug]

Originally posted by MacTBone
No, it is an extension of the Beatnik Poetry from way back when.

If there is no melody, it cannot be classified as music. Meaning, some percussion pieces can still be classified music because they vary the timbre of the drum and don't play the same thing ala normal background beat. I can still remember watching Bill Bruford play Caravan on a regular drum set. It's amazing how much you can do with just a set if you let your imagination take control.

Not to mention that dubbing yourself over someone else's song does not make you a musician.

Go check out the Philly based rap group The Roots. They fuse jazz and rap together to make some pretty good music. And they all play instruments. I would also consider the Dj's turntable to be an instrument. For proof of this go listen to someone like DJ Shadow or Dan The Automator. Yes, most rap DJs sample music, but the truly talented ones turn it into new music, by cutting, scratching, fusing different samples to create new music.

[Wiglaf]

Music ages much better than words.

[Blackwidow24]

yeah really bad poetry!!!

[Mr. Shadow]
It's the unfadable, confrontation with I is consequencial
Me and Slush "The Villain" makin your advisories parental
**** a presidental limosine
I roll wit thugs in maximas on Lomos
Or Impalas on chrome d's
Follow me and see why everybody calls me hostile
How motha****as be hatin cause I live a gangsta lifestyle
My profile is so wild you wouldn't wanna kick it
With these two young thugs, packin snubs and gettin convicted
Inflictin much pain like my a.k.a. was migrain
Make a fool swallow piss for disrespectin my name
From the sky falls rain to the streets you'll fall victim
And all I got to say to my thugs is **** the system
The Mistah Shadow is who I be up on this paragraph
Makin fools panic cause they heard about the aftermath
I'm at the point of no return and so I keep burnin
Marijuina cause I want the higher learner

[Asher]

I hate most rap.

I enjoyed several Tupac songs mostly because he sampled some songs I liked, but I still don't call that music, in the same way that TV commercials that play music are not music themselves, but rather using music to enhance the medium...

[Blackwidow24]

point noted....

Tupac was more poetry than any of the rap artist out there..I did like his music but rap can be so volatile now and days it's hard to listen to.

[sparkplug]

I dont really listen to gangsta rap alot, but 2pac is pretty good. But there is a lot of intelligent rap that is slept on by everybody. Socially concious emcees like Talib Kweli and Mos Def as well as political rap groups like Dead Prez and Public Enemy are very talented but they get ignored by alot of people just because they arent 'gangsta'.

[DanS]

Of course rap is music. If it were poetry, nobody would buy it.